Professor Paul T. Anastas is known as the “Father of Green Chemistry” for his pioneering work on the design and manufacture of chemicals that are non-hazardous and environmentally benign.

Together with his colleague John C. Warner, he developed the “12 Principles of Green Chemistry” that form the basis of the philosophy and underpin high school and university courses around the world.

Anastas served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Clinton and Bush administrations from 1999 to 2004. From 2004 to 2006, Anastas served as Director of the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute in Washington, D.C.

In 2009 he took up the post of Assistant Administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development and became a Science Advisor to the Agency. During his time with the EPA he worked on events and issues of international significance ranging from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gul f of Mexico to the environmental hazards of fracking. Unifying the federal government, EPA scientists, the wider scientific community and other stakeholders around the common goal of environmental sustainability was a feature of his approach to the role.

Anastas moved to Yale in 2012; he is the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment. He has appointments in Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Department of Chemistry, and Department of Chemical Engineering.

As director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale, his mission is “to advance sustainability by catalyzing the effectiveness of the Green Chemistry and Green Engineering community.”